


Warrior Girl (Decay)

by fluffy_papaya



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Angst, Body Horror, Dragons, Loss of Humanity, M/M, Other, Panic Attacks, Respawn Mechanics, Tags to be added, The Void, Transformation, don’t ship real people - Freeform, forced transformation, glares at ao3 tags with hermits real names, hello hermitcraft fandom pleasure to meet you, minecraft personas ONLY, raising a dragon is a homosexual activity I do not make the rules, will break hearts for comments and kudos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25666408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffy_papaya/pseuds/fluffy_papaya
Summary: Stress wakes up in a dimension she hardly visits, with a clone she’s pretty sure was killed in a rap battle, and a body that isn’t hers. Taken to the reaches of the End Lands, it’s clear Hels and Evil Xisuma are up to no good.In the Overworld, the last message they saw was ‘Stressmonster101 fell out of the world’. No response, no cheeky comment about her death, nothing.And False was determined to get to the bottom of it.(Maybe with some help.)
Relationships: Natalie Arnold & FalseSymmetry
Comments: 91
Kudos: 68





	1. in which Stress goes through some completely natural changes to her body

She opened her eyes to darkness.

Not the darkness of the night, nor the darkness one found in their unlit room or cupboard, no. Pitch black darkness, the sort behind the edge of a campfire, the one that crept around your nightmares and ensnared your mind.

Darkness she couldn’t see in, much less breathe- and oh dear, she was panicking, wasn’t she? Small spaces were her friend, but only when she knew them, and she didn’t know this tiny cage.

That was the second thing she noticed- she was crammed into a incredibly small and smooth prison. No windows, no doors. Just a round shape and her, and the pressing darkness.

She slammed her fist against the wall, feeling her nails dig into it, chip and crack away. That was something, and it gave a little hope and peace to her confused and panicky mind. It was probably a prank from her friends, heavens knew she was neighbors with some of the trickiest Hermits. They had covered her bed in... concrete? Item frames dyed black?

Whatever it was, she reached forward and hit against the wall again, seeing a little piece fall off and give the barest hint of light into her little prison. It only spurred her further, slamming her hand into the wall as hard and fast as she could, seeing chips and chunks start to crack and fall out, until there was a hole the size of her fist.  
Enough to see out of, and she leaned forward to try and catch a glimpse of her stupid friends, who had no doubt stayed around to see her reaction. 

“Very funny, Iskall!” She called, peering out into her room... 

Her room, which apparently had turned into endstone since she was last there.

She stared at the pale yellow block, pulling back and blinking foolishly before she leaned up against the hole again, staring.

Endstone, and beyond that, an obsidian pillar. And beyond that, nothing, an endless void that stretched for- well, if she had to hazard a guess, 1000 meters.

She was somehow in the End.

What a prank this was! Oh, Iskall and Grian must’ve teamed up for this one, it would’ve been hard to get her to the End with only the power of one person.

Deciding on a horrible fate for those boys later, Stress leaned back, bracing her feet near the edge of the hole. It was so cramped in her little prison, she couldn’t stretch out her legs without it feeling a little weird, but it was enough to send her foot through the materials and into the air of the void. 

She pulled it back in, relishing the rush of fresh air and hints of light that cane through the now, much bigger hole.

And then the man appeared, and Stress screamed before kicking him in the face.

Look, it wasn’t like it was unjustified- he had scared her, with those big red eyes and the burnt skin specking his cheeks like freckles, and it wasn’t like Stress was stupid. They had all heard the story about Wels and his evil clone’s rap battle, and if Stress had to point a finger in a lineup at Wels’ evil half?

Well, this man would be the first one she’d look at.

“Mother... fucker!” He swore, his voice a deep rasp, metal chafing on rocks. Stress could see a line of black blood across his face and felt a surge of pride, right up until he glared at her, reaching for her inside her prison.

Well, she might’ve not been the best at combat, but if there was one thing she knew how to do, it was dodge.  
She lurched forward, out of the cage and down onto the stone. The clone turned with her, reaching again, and Stress lifted herself to her feet to try and run for the portal back home.

Emphasis on the word try.

The cramped feeling of her legs followed her out into the world, refusing to let her stand or even stretch her legs past a certain point. Now that she was up and moving, it was more like her entire body felt strange.

More stiff, more light, more small- and it was the last bit that worried her the most! She was already the shortest Hermit, and what? Wels’ evil clone had shrunk her a few centimeters more?

If that was the case, he should expect a lot more than a nasty kick to the face!

Stress tried to stretch out again, lifting her head from where she had collapsed into the endstone. But once again, only stiff, uncooperative limbs responded, and Stress let out an annoyed huff before she looked at the boots in front of her. Polished netherite armor with edges of red and gold, regal colors turned sinister with their dark accent.

“Ex is going to owe me, trying to fucking take care of you.” The clone grumbled, and Stress jerked away when she felt hands on her sides. 

Large hands- and large boots too, she was now realizing. In fact, everything around her seemed much larger than it should’ve been, and Stress had the sinking feeling she had lost more than a couple of centimeters.

“Stay still, little shit.”

“Language!” She said, just as harshly- just because the guy was evil didn’t mean he had to be crude. 

He didn’t respond. He just wrapped his hands around her sides again, making sure she couldn’t move away or squirm out of his grip. She settled for a sinister glare, eyeing the strip of smeared blood against his pale skin.  
Oh, she was going to make him pay! Do something real nasty before the rest of the Hermits got to lay a finger on him!

“God, you freak me out.” The guy muttered, and Stress called a line when he tried to put a lead over her head.  
She wasn’t an animal, nor was she some... mindless beast that needed to be kept in place! Scaring her, picking her up after shrinking her, sure that was evil and was somewhat expected, if not weird.

But a lead was where she drew the gosh dang line, and instinct led her forward to bite down on his metal gauntlet, teeth ripping through netherite like it was butter and down into his flesh.

She drew back almost the second she tasted blood, hating how bitter it tasted in her mouth- the clone hissed, glaring down at her, but her work was completed when they both realized she had bitten through the rope of the lead as well, tearing it to shreds.

Goodness graacious, she wasn’t expecting a result like that.

“Fine, I’ll just carry you.” He grumbled, pointing his free and bleeding hand at her accusingly. “But you stay still.”  
Not too much of an issue with that, not when Stress was quietly going into shock.

She had just bitten through netherite; a material harder and stronger than diamond with nothing but her teeth and without an ounce of pain.

Her limbs still stiff and aching, she looked down at herself.

Rather than shorts and then an expanse of pale skin, her legs were made up of dark black scales, curled in on themselves like a dog’s. The scales overlapped each other, and every once in a while there was a vividly purple one. But for the most part, they weakly reflected the light around her, clanking softly against Wels’ clone’s armor. 

And then they spread up from there.

Up her legs, up her chest. No pink cardigan and white shirt, nor hot pink suit jacket and tie. Just more black scales, and if Stress twisted her head far enough, she could see limp and leathery grey wings attached to her back.

Her hands were clawed and scaly paws, that of a mob she and every other Hermit knew so well.

Oh dear.

Stress let herself be carried by the clone, her mind going blank and fuzzy as they reached the end of the island, and she heard rockets deploy, elytra spreading and catching the wind.

What on earth was she doing in the Ender dragon’s body?


	2. dragons, emos, and goths with anger issues, oh my

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW for this chapter: panic, cursing, dehumanization  
> if you think I need to add something to the trigger list, let me know!

The journey over the void was long and cold- or Stress assumed it would be, if she wasn’t held against the chest of a man from the Nether.

  
The one bright side to being forced into a body that wasn’t hers and kidnapped: cozy cuddles!  
Honestly, the humor helped a little, but not by much. The much more calming thing to do was look up at her captor and study his details.

  
He was a clone of Wels, that much was more sure. The same face, same shape, same little overbite to his lips. The differences, however, were stark and vast. Where Wels had golden freckles peppered across his cheeks like splattered wet sand, the clone had little burns, like someone had poked them onto his face. Wels had golden blonde hair, and the clone had striking raven locks. Blue eyes, red eyes.  
Smile, grimace.

  
Wels, and...

  
Well, she was never given the name of the clone, if he had one at all, so she couldn’t finish that train of thought. Instead, she moved on to watching the end islands drift by as the evil Wels pulled the string on a few more rockets, his gaudily painted elytra turning and twisting in little spots to keep them on track. Red dye was smeared across and between the creases of the elytra wings, with lines of black painted on.

  
If Wels had gone through an emo phase and stayed there, Stress was pretty sure he would look exactly the same.

  
She was shifted to under one arm instead of both, and the clone landed on a nondescript island, one of the small round ones. The enderman that had been milling around took one look at the two of them and poofed from existence, and Stress listened to the chuckle from the hellish knight.

  
But he didn’t say anything, not deeming her worthy of conversation (or maybe he didn’t realize Stress could understand him...?) as he grabbed for a shulker box, red as well, popping it open and grabbing out some food.  
Golden carrots for him, no doubt stolen from Wels’ supplies.

  
And the meat thrust her way was surely tempting, but Stress just glared and looked another way.

  
“Fuck’s sake.” The clone grumbled, pushing the cooked pork chop against her cheek. “What, not charred enough for you, brat?”

  
She grabbed it between her sharp teeth and tossed it as far as she could, both of them watching it fly over the edge and dissolve into the void.

  
Her stomach rumbled, but it was well worth it for the frustration smeared on the man’s face like the paint on his wings.

  
“Ex seemed so sure you’d like meat.” He grumbled, rifling through his shulker box.

“‘Oh, don’t worry Hels, it goes after players! Get it some meat and you should be fine!’ Guess what you little void hermit? It really isn’t fine.”

  
Stress was still clutched under his arm, so she couldn’t wriggle away.

  
But she could roll her eyes at him, taking a small amount of pity.

  
She did have a soft spot for people who could use help. 

  
She leaned forward and peered into the shulker box, eyes lighting up at the sight of cake and cookies, pointing at them.

  
“I’ll take those ones love, thank you.”

  
He glanced between her and the food- and she was right, he must’ve not been able to understand her words, but he could certainly understand Stress’s actions.

  
“Baby dragon with a sweet tooth.” He sighed. “Right. My life couldn’t get any more ridiculous.”

  
She was handed a stack of three cookies and quickly devoured them, chocolate and cookie crumbles catching in her claws until she licked those up as well.

  
A happy chirp left her mouth- and she immediately shut her lips again, not used to the unusual sound coming from herself.

  
Wels’ clone muttered something about softies, but he readjusted her in his grip and took off again, shulker box tucked back into his pouch and fireworks in his hand. The cool air of the end soared past them, and Stress closed her eyes as she imagined she was simply flying above the jungle. Warm sun on her back, the harness of her elytra around her chest, wind whipping in her ears...

  
Obviously she was homesick. Captured, changed, and dragged from her home would leave any woman hungry for her hearth, and Stress yearned to see a single bit of green on the eternal canvas of the blank void.

  
Or purple.  
Or pink.  
Or magenta.

  
And preferably not on her own body, because she was still reeling a bit from. Well. That.  
She couldn’t tell if it was a blessing or a curse this flight was taking so long. On the one hand, it gave her more time to think of an escape plan, a bargaining chip, a way to contact Xisuma or Iskall or anyone at all. And on the other hand, it gave her time to think.  
Think about what Wels’s clone and what he wanted with her. How and why he had turned her into not only the Ender dragon, but a much smaller version. Where he was taking her as they flew across the expanse of the End. Who else had he stolen away, if anyone?  
It all made her head hurt, and Stress sighed as she opened up her eyes again, watching quietly.

  
They probably flew for another hour or so, if Stress had to guess. Time was always... strange around the End, but she had a good sense of time no matter the dimension she was in. They had passed thousands of islands, more end cities than anyone would ever want for shulker box needs, and flown over countless kilometers of empty air and space before they apparently reached their destination.

  
It was another group of small round islands- or at least, it had been at some point. Bridges made of purpur and endbricks connected them, and some were connected by sloping cliffs, like someone had joined them together purely for the aesthetic of the height difference was too much.

  
There was a small house on the top-most island made of spruce planks and dark oak logs, and smoke curled from it’s tiny stone chimney. They landed in front of it, and the single window at the front allowed Stress to look inside.

  
It was empty of people, but she could see a kitchen and lounge, as well as two doors that likely led to bedrooms.

  
Her locality changed, the clone moving her from his side to the ground, crouching in front of her.

  
“Stay.” He said firmly, red eyes glowing like hellish fireflies. 

  
Stress, very quickly, took one wobbly step to the left.

  
He didn’t seem to find that humorous, but at least he didn’t try to put a lead around her neck again. Instead, the man went over to the house, opening the door and grabbing something hanging inside. Stress could hear the rattling of metal, and she cringed as her new ears amplified the sound even further.

  
He drew back out with a loop of chains, one end attached to something in the house. He threw the other end off into the void after digging a hook into a chunk of broken endstone about the size of his head, the metal clacking and sliding against the rough endstone as it dragged itself off the island, slowly becoming more taut until Stress couldn’t see it going anymore tight.

  
“Hey!” She shrieked, picked up again. Her stupid wings were uncomfortably pinned against the clone’s armor, one of her hind legs awkwardly bent.

  
“You make a lot of noise, huh?” The clone muttered, using his other hand to grab the chain. “You and Ex should get along fine.”  
Resisting the urge to bite him again, Stress squirmed slightly in his grip until she could move a few parts around, the knight not stopping for her as he started to slide down the chain.

  
His gauntlet screeched against the offending metals, and Stress cried out in pain at the awful noise that seemed to dig into her head like one would dig into a diamond pile with reckless abandon. 

  
They landed on the chunk of endstone with a solid thud, swaying in the air as Stress panted, head aching at the too-loud noises and the sudden lack of air. They must’ve been right above the Void, capital v, with it’s suffocating nothingness and the sudden chill that grabbed Stress.

  
They waited in silence for... something.  
Stress didn’t dare say a word, her eyes straining against the dark.

  
Several times, she thought she saw something moving, dark shapes swooping up and pulling back away when her eyes snapped to them.  
All except for one.

  
“There he is.” The clone said, and Stress felt a kernel of fear plant itself in her stomach at the excitement in his voice. What could someone so evil be so happy about?

  
She jumped when a gloved and armored hand rose from nothing and grabbed the stone. The man leaned down, still holding her, keeping his balance as he released his grip on the chain and grabbed the band’s wrist.

  
Fingers wrapped around his own forearm, and the knight grinned as he pulled and heaved, the armored glove becoming an armored arm, shoulder, helmet, chest plate.

  
All a dull crimson, and all hauntingly familiar.

  
The black visor of the helmet was shiny enough to see her reflection in, and Stress could see her small draconic face twisted in horror as the clone pulled Evil Xisuma out of the void.

  
Ah.

  
Ex.

  
That made much more sense.

  
“Welcome to the land of the living, bitch.” The clone said dryly, and Evil Xisuma chuckled in the horrible demonic voice of his.

  
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything, Hels.”

  
The clone- or rather, Hels- raised his brow, shaking Stress in his offhand.

  
“Anything? In that case, hold this.”

  
She was roughly transferred over to Evil Xisuma’s grip, paralyzed with pure anger.

  
How dare he.  
How absolutely dare he!

  
She reared her head, staring him straight into the barest outline of eyes she could see through his darkened helmet.

  
“Coward.” She hissed, feeling her tail lash behind her (and that was a strange feeling she would have to think about later.) “You are an absolute coward! You should be banned! Neither I nor any of the Hermits should have to look at your ugly stupid face ever again, and I want you gone!”

  
Ex hummed, turning to Hels.

  
“Is it always this noisy?”

  
“Doesn’t shut up.” Hels said with a smirk. “So you two have a lot in common. Hold onto it, will you? I’ll fly back up and start pulling you up.”

  
“‘So you two have a lot in common.’” Evil Xisuma mocked, and Hels gave him a punch to his shoulder before jumping upwards, pulling a rocket and blasting off in a shower of sparks that didn’t hurt either of them.

  
Stress became aware of fingers dragging across her scales and tried to throw herself around to get Ex to stop touching her.

  
“It’ll be okay, little dragon.” He said under his breath, fingers still letting across her black and purple scales. “Before, your purpose was to die. And now...”

  
They started to slowly move upwards, t’be sound off creaking metal making Ex sound even more horrifying. 

  
“Now?” He cooed. “Now you’ll get revenge on all those stupid Hermitbutts. You, and me, and Hels, burning their pretty world to the ground. Slaughtering them again and again. How does that sound?”

  
Stress only felt a chill in her chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly? no clue where I’m going with this. but hey, all part of the fun!


	3. irony is perhaps the greatest weapon, when not used against you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tw for discussion of pronouns, mention of slight body horror, and unwilling nicknaming. Please let me know if I need to add or adjust any of these!
> 
> And apologies for a shorter chapter <3

They were pulled up by Hels, the evil knight giving a wide grin to Ex as their little chain and platform rose to the island.

  
“Well, glad to see you didn’t melt like the last time we tried this. Though it means I have to listen to you jabber all day.”

  
“I get it, I talk a lot.” Evil Xisuma clambered onto the island with the little house, Stress held in his arms. “Will that stop me? Quite the opposite.”

  
“Whatever will I do.” Hels said, his distorted voice monotone. “When was the last time you ate?”

  
“Depends on what the date is.”   
  
Stress could hear the scowl, even if the red helmet covered up Ex’s voice. His grip on her got ever so tighter, his hard gloves digging between her scales, half a centimeter from turning painful.

  
“So probably a while, then.” Hels let the chained island drop back down, striding backwards and opening the door to the cabin. “I don’t know what day it is, I’ve spent the majority of my life in the Nether and End.” He glanced at Stress, the tiny dragon limp and glassy eyed.

“You can probably put her down.”

  
“What if she runs?” Ex said, stepping inside. “Or- is she a she?”

  
“The original dragon is, it leaves an egg behind. I’m just assuming here, man, I don’t think baby realm breaking dragons are concerned about gender. And I don’t think she’ll run, she’s still a baby.”

  
Stress kicked lightly at Ex’s armored arm, feeling a stream of curses well up in her chest.

  
She was... gosh, she was just so confused and angry! Nothing was making sense!  
But at least it got her attention, and Evil Xisuma only hesitated a second more before placing her in the ground.

  
Okay.

  
Okay, Stress, it was simple. Learn how new limbs work, walk around.

  
She hesitantly raised a front leg and placed it back down, tensing up as she realized just how different her body felt now. Where arms had been were now front legs, and her actual legs were an entirely different muscle group. Picking up her other front foot and one of her hind feet, she tried for a shaky step forward, not expecting the weight that followed and crashed her into the wooden ground.

  
She heard distorted and deep chuckles and felt something like a flush under her skin.

  
“Can’t walk, huh?”

  
“She hatched less than two hours ago. I don’t know how early dragons learn how to walk.”  
Stress filed away those bits of information- two hours, and they didn’t know how dragons worked. Was she an experiment? A first try? A legend brought to life?

  
Whatever she was, she was going to learn how to walk.

  
She struggled back up onto her four legs, noticing that peculiar weight again, and she wanted to smack herself for not thinking of it when it had been the only thin she could think of before.

  
Tail and wings. That was how those worked, right? Cats used their tails to balance, and it wasn’t like birds dragged their wings around everywhere.

  
So before she could learn how to walk, she had to learn how to control two totally different parts of herself.

  
Ugh.

  
She would start with the wings.

  
Trying to find out how to move new muscles... it was like PE class, but so much worse. Like doing a push-up and finding out you’ve been doing it wrong your whole life, and when you’re corrected your entire body protests and you can’t stop yourself from doing it the old way.

  
She was able to flex her back muscles, tightening her shoulder blades and relaxing them again. It wiggled the base of her wings, but the feeling was so foreign she almost threw up her previous cookies and the wings smacked back into the ground.

  
She suddenly had a lot more respect for Doc- she hadn’t been around when the creeper had been tamed and given his prosthetics, but she imagined it was just as painful as this.

  
Flexing her back muscles again, and following the feelings from there, Stress took shaky breaths as she lifted the leathery wings up up up and off the ground, going from joint one to two to three until no translucent membrane dragged along the floor.

  
She was reminded she was in a room with two very evil men when she was given applause.

  
“She’s going to learn how to fly, Hels.”

  
“I’m not sure how else you want us to conquer the Hermits. Did you expect us to walk?”

  
Despite the harsh teasing and terrifying words, the clone of Wels grabbed a couple of cookies from his pockets, dodging the kitchen table and crouching in front of Stress.

  
“Good dragon.” He muttered, offering her a cookie, and Stress glared before she took it in between her teeth and crunched down on it.  
This was patronizing.

  
“We need a name!” Evil X exclaimed, slamming his fist onto the table. “A name for our worthy beast of destruction! I vote we name her... Evil Xisuma Jr! Or Wormgirl!”

  
“I hate both of those with such a fiery passion if I could burn words they would be ash.” Hels said, and Stress was only more convinced he was Wels’ emo phase gone horribly wrong. “It needs to be a powerful name, one that will strike terror into the hearts of the hermits when they hear her descend from the sky!”

  
“Or you could just use my name.” Stress remarked, chewing idly on her cookie. As expected, neither of them understood her, but Ex cooed at what was presumably a little growl to him.

  
“She’s a little monster!” He said, and Stress was rather curious at how someone so evil could be so cute. She carefully lifted her wings and started to stumble towards him, pleased to find her tail had a mind of its own and balanced her out, allowing her to take shaky steps.

  
“Stress monster, love.”

  
“Listen to her growl!”

  
“Yes, yes, she’s adorable, whatever.” Hels huffed, grabbing some meats and greens out of his shulker box to set on a plate, handing it to Ex. “We still need a name.”

  
“Stress.” Stress said, her voice starting to edge into annoyed. “Stress. Streeeeeess.”  
Still ignored.

  
“Whats the opposite of a hermit... let’s name her Extrovert!”

  
“I am actually going to punch you in your stupid face.” Hels said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “She needs to sound cool and dangerous. Like... Kronos.”

  
“That’s one of those Greek guys, isn’t it?”

  
“Powerful names from a powerful history.” Hels muttered, grabbing a cookie when he thought Ex wasn’t looking and shoving it into his mouth. Stress just sighed, wobbling her way to sit underneath the table. “Rhea. Hera. Apollo.”

  
“My name is Stress!” She cried. “Bloody hell, I’m Stress, Stress!”

  
“I don’t think she likes those names.” Ex whispered. He tried to reach a hand under the table to pet her head, but she huffed and bit into the armor as hard as she could. “Ow! Crap! Little monster bit me...”

  
“Right, I’m a little monster.” Stress laughed, starting to go mad listening to these two idiotic morons. “When False and Iskall find you two, I can promise they will not let you have a peaceful respawn ever again. That... that seems harsh. Maybe a slight break between respawns. I can bring flowers. Cookies.”

  
She became aware that both voices had fallen silent, looking up to meet the dark visor of Ex’s helmet. The evil... twin? Clone? Some manifestation of self? was staring peculiarly at her, if she had to guess.

  
She turned around to find Hels also upside down, looking at her under the table, pinning her to the spot with those crimson eyes.

  
“Monster.” He said slowly. “I like it. It’s plain, but to the point. Isn’t that right, Monster?”

  
Stress squeezed her eyes shut.

  
“You’ve got to be bloody kiddin’ me.”

  
“She likes it!” Ex gasped, passing another cookie down and into her claws. “Monster!”

  
Stress peeked one eye open, scowling as she bit into her cookie with a vengeance.

  
She could survive with her surname.  
For now.


	4. if she had done hermit challenges none of this would’ve happened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tw for: slight panic attack/self diminishing thoughts, immature insults, mentions of non-permanent death, missing person, swearing, and joe hills being joe hills c:  
> as always, please let me know if you think that needs to be updated, and enjoy the chapter!

It wasn't easy, trying to sleep.

  
Stress was given a feather stuffed sack, sewn shut with flimsy thread, and left in the small kitchen while Hels and Ex filed into the same room. She wasn't aware you could sleep in the End, but she also wasn't aware she could wake up in a dragon's body. So life was full of surprises.

  
Stress stared out the window and tried to think, but her mind was as empty as the expanse of void she could see. Grumbling, she stood from her pet bed, teetering uncertainly as she made her way to the door. The handle was far too far up for Stress to reach, so she looked around for a new plan.

  
A plan like the open window, and the chair barely a hop away from the glass.

  
Her claws dug into the wood, splitting the grain apart as she pulled herself up, a little rebellious fire lighting in her chest even as her brain whispered to her heart to not get her hopes up. One hop and jump later, and Stress was tumbling out the window and onto the endstone.

  
The cool air of the void rushed past her face, and Stress closed her eyes for a minute as she collected herself.

"Oh, I wish I was in the jungle." She muttered out loud to herself-she had rather gotten used to the open communication where no one could understand her, and she had invented some great new insults that Ex had taken as gratitude growls.

It was nice to get a cookie for calling someone a ‘donkey's arse stuffed with moldy cheese.’

It had been a little over three hours since she had hatched from the egg, but that was functionally worthless when she had no idea how long she had been in there in the first place.

  
She stopped that train of thought before it could get ahead of her, taunting her- _**"-they've already moved on. No one remembered you. No one noticed when you went missing. No one cared."**_

Mm, see, that was the type of thought she was trying to stop.

But she couldn't stop herself, crawling to the edge of the island. She felt a burning behind her eyes, but no tears.

  
She must've not had tear ducts.

Had anyone noticed she was gone? It wasn't like she was the most talkative to her neighbours. She wasn't an Impulse and Tango, or a Xisuma and Keralis. If anyone would notice her missing, it would be Iskall, Scar, False, or Cleo. The two former were her close neighbours, and depending on how much time had passed, she could've missed the HermitGal monthly meeting.

  
It scared her, not knowing what was going on outside her little bubble of transformation and wisps of evil plans. Stress closed her eyes, the lack of tears just wanting to make her cry more.

Maybe Xisuma could track her. Maybe her missing communicator was right inside her, and the admin was launching a search.  
That was a nice hope.

  
She would hold onto that one.

Stressmonster 101: x

False snapped her read up as her communicator buzzed impatiently, snagging it off her crafting bench. Blue eyes scanned over chat, sighing when she realized it was just Bdubs making fun of Scar for not sleeping fast enough.

  
At least it was a joke in chat. Needless to say, things around the server had been...

  
Tense.

It had started with a common enough death message, one at didn't bring panic or search parties.

_Stressmonster 101 fell out of the world._

  
_rendog: ouch!_

  
_iskall85:f_

  
_iskall85: and you went end busting without me?_

_GoodTimeWithScar: betray!!!_

  
_GoodTimeWithScar: L_

_GoodTimeWithScar: betrayl_

_iskall85: lol_

And that had been that. Stress hadn't responded, which wasn't unusual for someone that died (by the void no less, False had cringed in sympathy) and the world continued.  
And no one had noticed anything off until a week later.

_iskall85: stressssssssssssss_

_iskall85: strass_

_iskall85: streEess_

_iskall85: can I come over and borrow some flowers_

_iskall85: omega tree needs color!!!_

_iskall85: streeeees_

_iskall85: I will mess up your name until you answer me_

_iskall85: spaghetti_

_iskall85: alright I’m coming over_

_MumboJumbo: thank goodness, I had to silence my communicator_

_iskall85: LOL_

It had been a minute. Two. Five. Twenty.

_iskall85: is stress with one of you not checking her comm???_

_GoodTimeWithScar: negative_

_Grian: nope_

_MumboJumbo: no_

_joehillssays: The beautiful monster hidden behind pinks and purples and smiles has not come by my vineyard._

_iskall85: thanks, joe_

_joehillssays: :)_

_iskall85: stress when you look at this message later I took some of your flowers_

_iskall85: left some gorgeous shiny rocks in their place <3_

And then back to normal.  
For days. And then weeks- 2 of them, to be exact, before the message buzzed through chat.

_Xisuma: has anyone heard from Stress lately?_

_Xisuma: whether by chat, or just seeing her :-)_

_iskall85: is she okay?_

_iskall85: no I haven’t seen her_

_Xisuma: she’s fine. but can you come to the town hall, Iskall?_

_iskall85: omw_

_falsesymmetry: haven’t seen her. what’s up?_

_Xisuma: just need to talk to her_

_joehillssays: if intentions are to protect, then we are hailed as heroes. to do harm for another’s good is viewed as the ultimate sacrifice of love, no matter how far the poison of that harm spreads. Paris fell for Helen of Troy, and was immortalized. But what of fair Helen, who had to bare the pain he brought with him and his white lies? What of the poor maiden, subcummed to empty promises for her own good? What of Troy, who burned into the ground and was left as a smear of ash? Paris was a hero._

_ethoslab: nah haven’t seen stress either_

_joehillssays: I will be at the town hall in a moment, Xisuma_

_joehillssays: I appear to have put my shoes on the wrong feet_

False had laughed, had pushed her worries to the back of her mind, and forgotten all about it until she swooped into the shopping district with the intention to fill her stores, and instead finding her new shop broken into, and being used as a meeting room.

“She’s missing, Xisuma! And you don’t want me to tell anyone?”

“Her status says she’s still alive.” Xisuma said quietly, and False presssed herself against the wall to listen. “Iskall, I need you to trust me. Panic will not bring Stress back.”

“Neither will keeping it from the Hermits, however.” Joe’s twanged voice was closer than she expected, and False jumped. He must’ve been right on the other side of the wall.

"While that's true, I have to choose between the lesser of two evils, here." X sounded exhausted, but his voice held firm. "Neither of you tells another Hermit that Stress is missing, and I'll do my best to find her. She'Il be back to her family in no time."  
False's communicator buzzed against her hand, and out of habit she glanced down.

_joehillssays: family, friends._

_joehillssays: it is with deepest regrets I inform you our monster of Stress and love is missing_

_joehillssays: please meet at the town hall_

There was a heavy sigh. "Joseph."

  
"Xisuma."

The meeting was rushed, loud and chaotic. X explained how, while going through some maintenance glitches related to Sleeping, he had found corrupted code. It wasn't hard to trace, and he showed them all their respawns. Some of them had coordinates indicative of their beds, while others who were on the move had spawn as their coordinate set.  
Stress's was flying at a thousand kilos per minute, numbers changing and spinning around each other.

"And that's not it." Xisuma said. pulling his admin screen back and pushing it forward.

Once again, a list of their stats.  
This list was labeled simply as 'Day', and showed 153. Wels' was different from the rest of them, oddly, listed as 74, but their admin gave them a simple enough explanation.  
"It's how many days we've been here." He said, scrolling the list down. "Wels, obviously, was stuck in our last world and didn't get here until later. Stress, on the other hand..."  
Some Hermits sucked in nervous breaths, while others held the hands of their friends tightly.

False bit her lip and stared.  
Stressmonster101: 192018519191315141920518

"We don't know where, or when she is." X sighed, dragging a hand down the glass of his helmet. "For now, all we can do is keep a look out, and I'll look through her code. It's filled to the brim with corrupted data, so it might take a while. Don't do anything stupid, my friends."

"That's millions of centuries." Impulse said, horror written all over his usually smiley face. “That's- that’s past a billion, that’s-"  
"5 quintillion years." Tango finished for him, holding up the calculator screen on his communicator for all of them to see. "Wherever Stress is, she's been there for 5 quintillion years."

Deep sorrow settled into Xisuma's face, mixed with guilt.  
"She's still labeled as alive. We can only hope, my friends."

So to say things were tense was probably an understatement!

That had been three days ago. False hadn't touched a single new block for her mega base, just sitting at her table and staring at her comms.  
5 quintillion.  
False didn't think the brain was meant for numbers that high.

Cleo had stopped by at one point, taking in the quiet of False's base and understanding as she took the seat across from the blonde.  
They spent a couple of hours in silence before Cleo had to leave, and now here False was, a day after that.  
She had moved to eat, and that was it.

Her comms buzzed again, and False sighed, looking back down- freezing, mouth falling open, knuckles white.

_Stressmonster101: x_

False’s fingers fumbled, texting a message as fast as she could, still getting beat to the punch.

_iskall85: stress!!!_

_falsesymmetry: holy shit_

_Xisuma: I’m here, Stress. Where are you?_

_GoodTimeWithScar: tell us your coords and we’ll come pick you up!_

_impulseSV: stress?_

_Tango: stress holy fuck where you at_

Messages, from all their friends, family, pouring into chat. If False hadn’t been glued to the screen, she would’ve missed a message from Stress in the clutter of support.

If a message from Stress had come at all.

  
There was nothing. No smiley face, no heart emoji, no little jokes or bad puns or words spelled out to fit an accent.

  
One letter. Stress was missing for a potential month, had spent 5 quintillion years somewhere, and all she could manage was one letter, calling out to their admin in a cry for help.

  
False thought about chucking her communicator out the window, and instead typed another message, this one in private chat.

  
_falsesymmetry: X. My base or yours?_


	5. a goth with anger issues and his arts and crafts

Stress spent the night (night? day?) outside, curled into a pitiful ball of scales and wishful thinking. She didn't get a wink of sleep; every time Stress tried to close her eyes, it was like she was hearing her friends' voices, calling out for her, asking her where she was.

  
And while it was nice to hear their voices, it was still haunting. 

  
The dragon heard real voices inside the cabin. Sleepy, unhurried, and the front door swung open behind her, Stress listening to the sound of hard boots on rock. 

  
“Told you she was out here, Hels.” Ex called, and Stress saw him crouch down next to her out of the corner of her eye. "Hello, Monster. Sleep well?"

  
"Oh, bugger off, you blimey sack of shit." Stress said crossly, drawing her wings in as a shield.

  
Ex hummed and Stress wanted to scream when she felt fingers scratch the top of her head.

  
"I slept well enough. It feels a little strange, sleeping again. You can't sleep under the void, no matter how much your body wants to."

  
"Sounds awful. I feel like you should be able to understand my tone."

"You're chatty!" Evil X said brightly, moving his fingers to under Stress's chin- and damn it, it felt good, and she didn't feel like biting his hand right now. "Hels is setting up inside for your super duper awesome training. You'll be killing Hermitbutt in no time, Monster!"  
  
The thought made her queasy. 

  
"But first, you have to get big and strong. And cookies won't do that."

  
Ex unwrapped a small handkerchief he had by his side, showing off an array of meat. Pork, steak, rabbit, even the disgusting wrinked texture of rotten flesh.

  
"Eat whatever you want, Monster. "Ex cooed, pushing the food closer. "You have a long day of training ahead of you."

Stress took one sniff at the meat and almost threw up. 

  
She could still smell traces of blood, of iron and salt. Far too much to handle in a single sitting, and Stress sat back, wishing desperatley for her cookies. 

  
Ex read her mind when it least mattered, laughing at her disgust.   
"It's just some meat. Here. If you eat this pork chop, I'II get you a cookie."

  
It was tempting.  
Very tempting.  
Was she going to play along with Xisuma's evil brother, join in his games? Was she willing to sacrifice a little bit of her will for some good ol' fashioned chocolate?

  
Yes.

  
Yes she was.

  
Stress grabbed the offered pork chop between her claws, clumsily holding it and closing her elongated jaw around the fresh meat.  
She could still taste blood. But other than that...

  
It wasn't the worst thing Stress had ever had. Scar's wizard fruit surprise pie had quite literally killed her, and this didn’t taste half bad.

  
She chewed around the lean fat cooked in the meat, sharp teeth seemingly meant for ripping it apart- which in hind sight, they probably were. It was gone before she realized, leaving her claws greasy, her mouth watering, and her stomach rumbling.

  
"See Meat isn't bad." Ex whispered, poking a rabbit haunch at her, and Stress didn't even bother with her claws that time, grabbing it with her teeth and ripping it apart, letting the food slide down her throat.   
She hadn't realized how hungry she was, and she almost dived into the pile of food offered to her.

Distantly, Stress realized it wasn't natural for her. She was a light eater most days, and most of her meals consisted of sugar and fats, much preferring cake to carrots. She would've almost called herself vegetarian, if not for bacon and the occasional delicacy that was Iskall's homemade chicken nuggets.  
But on a normal day? Eating this much food- this much meat- would've normally made her puke.

  
She ignored those thoughts, and continued to gorge herself. Ten minutes later, and a near empty napkin of food, Stress leaned back and licked her lips. Ex seemed pleased, and HeIs, who had come out in the second half of breakfast, was equally as smug.

  
"I might need to go back to the Overworld." The knight said thoughtfully. "She'll only eat more as she's growing."

  
"You might want to bring some live prey too, my friend."

  
"I am not carrying a cow 10 thousand blocks over the void."

  
"Then try some chickens. Or some eggs, to hatch them." Ex suggested, scooting closer to his evil friend. "Are you finished with your arts and crafts?"

  
"I am." Hels said cooly, placing down a jet black shulker box.

Stress crept closer as he opened it up, curious to see what her kidnapper had been working on. 

  
...  
Dolls.  
Little...   
dolls.  
That bore a striking resemblance to some of her friends. 

  
There was a little Iskall doll, and that was where her attention was drawn first, curious claws reaching out to grab the green wool that made up the center chunk of his body.  
It was... very well made. Iskall had his brown vest, and a tiny painted mechanical eye and beard.

  
"Oh, Iskall." Stress whispered, wanting nothing more than to hear her friend's laugh.

"These are dangerous Hermits." Hels said firmly, snapping her out of her little daydream. "Dangerous, Monster. We don't want them to kill you, so you have to kill them first."

  
He started to pull out more dolls, and Stress wasn't quite sure if she would laugh or cry when she saw them all. There was a little Xisuma, False, Wels, Doc, and surprisingly, Joe, all standing upright between her and Hels.

  
Stress, still holding little Iskall, reached out to poke the other dolls. Some were carved from wood, like Joe, while False was made of wool and straw. No matter the material, however, they still held an incredible amount of detail for such small things. 

  
"And now it's time for practice." HeIs said, grabbing Xisuma and Joe to set them up on the endstone. "Monster, these two hermits have their weapons raised on you. What do you do?"

"I still think a day old is too young for military training." Ex called, heading back inside. 

  
"Formal training from the Nether." HeIs corrected, and grabbed Dollsuma to poke Stress in the chest. "You're dead. Try again."

  
Stress blinked, frowning.

  
"Y'know, maybe she just doesn't understand violence." Ex suggested, hovering in the doorway. "Show her what to do."

  
Hels hummed, but surprisingly didn't shoot the idea down. He took the little False and pushed her in the chest, toppling her over and having her straw hair crunch against the endstone.

  
Just as quickly, Stress reached out and picked False up, setting her on her feet and next to Doc.

  
"I'm not going to play your stupid war game, you homegrown emo.” She said, holding Iskall even tighter against her chest.

  
"Don't hug them." Hels said distastefully, reaching out to try and grab Iskall. "Ex, Monster is showing emotions." 

  
"That's good!" Ex called from  
inside the cabin, and Stress refused to let go of the small doll she had taken prisoner.  
"Emotions like rage and murder?" 

  
"Monster is hugging them." Hels let go of mini Iskall, staring at Stress. "Monster. Can you understand me?"

  
"Unfortunately."

"I don't know if that's just a vocal response."Hels mused. "Pick up another Hermit if you can understand me."

  
Stress reached out to pick up False again, and in a move she thought the other woman would appreciate, chucked it at Hels.

It bounced off his chest plate and crunched again on the rock.

"Brat." He said simply. "But good. You do understand me. Choose one of the Hermits to kill."

"No." Stress said, just as flat as the clone.  
The knight gaze went dark- and good, he could understand her tone unlike the moron that was Ex.

  
"It's not a choice, Monster." 

  
Stress sneered, reaching to pick up the little False again, holding it just as tightly as Dollskall. She only realized she was growling when Hels hissed back, eyes flashing dangerously as he swung miniature Xisuma around.

  
"I am a knight of Hels, you insolent lizard. I have trained for destruction like this for centuries! I am the best warrior the Undernether has seen, and I will not have some miniscule ball of scales defying my orders to kill a Hermit!"

  
"Hels."

  
Evil Xisuma was standing in the doorway again, drying off his hands with a rag. His helmet was still on, but disapproval radiated off his stiff posture. 

  
"Stop yelling."

  
"She's refusing to do what I say!" Hels protested, very quickly turning from threatening knight to whiny baby. 

  
"She's been around for a night." Ex walked over, feet crunching ominously against the end stone. "No matter how many generational memories that egg passes on, you can't force a dragon to fight if they don't want to. We'll try again another day, my friend."

  
Hels stood up quickly, a scowl twisting the pretty features that should've only belonged to Wels.

  
"Your Xisuma is showing, weakling." 

  
And then he was storming off and down the island edge, heading towards one of the bridges that connected it to another island. 

Ex stood still, and so did Stress, not daring to breath until the man made a move.  
And that move was to sign and crouch next to her, picking up the small doll of Wels and holding it out to her.

  
"You like these, Monster? Hels is a talented artist."

Stress hesitantly reached out to snag Wels, claws catching on the cloth used for his tiny clothes.

  
Ex hummed, the distorted sound still managing to sound happy.

  
"You're not really a child, are you?" 

  
Stress flicked her eyes up to Evil X, the frills on the back of her neck pressing against her scales.

  
"I thought you were, because you were so small." Ex continued, picking up the rest of the dolls to place back in the shucker box. "But you're just small. All those memories must be kicking in, huh?"

  
Memories?  
Her own memories? Of course she still had those, and the only thing she couldn’t remember was how she got into that egg. What memories was Ex talking about, that would be kicking back in?

  
“I am sorry we took you away from the main island.” Ex said, maybe a tad mournfully, and he shut the shulker box with a quiet click. “But the crystals aren’t hard to make, and you’ll be safer with us than alone.”

  
“What on earth are you talking about?” Stress asked, her grip on Iskall growing tight with desperation. “What memories? Why do you need me? You don’t even know I’m one of the Hermits, do you?”

Her stream of questions was interrupted by a purr from her own throat- it surprised her, and Ex, both of them looking down at where he was scratching under her chin.  
Ex studied her quietly for a moment before reaching up to his helmet, unlatching bits and bobs.

  
Stress had been one of the few lucky hermits to see Xisuma without his helmet. She often took care of her friends when they got sick, and soup did not filter well through a heavy helmet. Thus, she had gotten to see the X behind the mask, smiling weakly at her with freckled and scarred cheeks that were not unlike Scar’s.

  
She hadn’t quite put a lot of thought into what Evil Xisuma looked under his helmet. To her, the man was just the red helmet and black visor, red eyes just barely visible beyond the dark tinted glass.

  
She hadn’t thought about that fact that he could share a face with Xisuma. The same freckles, the same dimples, just on slightly paler skin. They shared the same set of lips, the slightly crooked nose, like someone had broken it, and the same widow’s peak.  
There were differences, of course. Where Xisuma had light brown hair and the slightest hint of scruff, Ex had snowy locks and was clean shaven. Instead of the x-shaped set of scars over his face, it was a V, running from the outwards corners of each of his eyes, and down to the corners of his mouth. 

  
The horns she thought were decoration certainly were not decoration- as the front half of the helmet fell forward, it became very obvious that the curling black horns were stuck in Ex’s head.

“You’re a curious one, Monster.” He said, and gone was the distorted voice, replaced with the exact same one she had heard for years.

(“Are you Stress Monster?” “Stress, say hello to the Hermits.” “Stress, can i borrow a stack of iron? I’ll pay it back.” “Stress, you are absolutely wonderful.”) 

He started to scratch her under the chin again, and once more that purr was pulled out of her without her telling to.  
She didn’t mind too much, clutching the dolls to her scaled chest as she was pet, gentle fingers scratching in between the plates, where debris from the endstone had already gotten stuck. It was... nice, in a weird way.

  
“Hels is very impatient.” Ex whispered, fingers moving from her neck down to where her wings were attached to her body. “But Monster, give him a chance? He’s not mature like the both of us.”

  
Stress snorted at that- Ex still called them ‘Hermitbutts’ and she wasn’t sure the names she had given her villagers were classified as mature. But it was still funny, and Stress gently headbutted the man, since hugs were way out the question.

  
“I remember when you said you weren’t going to be evil anymore.” She said. “What happened to that, huh?”

  
“Wish I knew what you were trying to say to me.” Ex said. “But communication is nothing compared to... cookies!”

  
He drug them out from his inventory with a beaming smile, wide enough to show off all the sharp teeth Stress had been quite surprised to learn Xisuma had had.  
One cookie was given to her, and she fumbled between the dolls and the treat before giving up trying to pick it up, and taking it in her mouth instead.

  
Evil Xisuma bumped his cookie against hers.

  
“Cheers, Monster!”

  
“Cheers.” She echoed, voice muffled by the bitter chocolate that spread through her mouth and melted over her tongue.


	6. stress makes a daring escape, and somehow actually escapes. im just as surprised as you!

Was she best friends with Ex?

Goodness, no.

Was it easier to be around him than Hels?

Goodness, yes.

Perhaps it was just the less aggressive way he talked and acted, peppered with Xisuma words like 'goodness' and 'my friend!’ Like someone who had grown up with Stress's admin, but enough differences that she could safely think about Ex without becoming too painfully homesick.

Hels. on the other hand... if Stress didn't know he was a clone of Wels, she would think he was a bloody prat that happened to strike a couple as physical similarities to Wels.

Because Hels?

Hels was an absolute prick. 

Stress lost count over the next 3 days how many times she tried to bite the man, but she took great pride in the successful 4 bites she had managed to get on him, drawing blood once. For pulling her tail, mocking comments directed at Ex that went past just being evil to just being mean, locking her in a small cage while Ex was out and he needed to polish his armor, and the worst crime of all, trying to give her an oatmeal raisin cookie.

Wels already liked pineapple on pizza, they didn't need another version of him running around with another food related crime.

Stress sighed and flicked the tip of her wing against a growing stalk of wheat. She was pleased when Ex gave her a little tour of their connected islands, and one of those islands held a simple 4 by 4 farm, growing half wheat and half carrots.

There were a couple of magma blocks scattered around to mimic sun light, and it seemed to be working, as well as giving off a slightly uncomfortable heat to Stress. Pretty much, when Hels wasn't trying to get her to massacre tiny versions of her friends and Ex wasn't chattering her ears off, she spent most of her time at the rudimentary garden.

It was the world's most messed up server. A clone inhabited by a demon, some sort of actual demon, and a dragon who was actually a grown woman.

Stress gave another sigh, eyeing the carrots with distaste. Whatever transformation she had undergone had made her reaction to those less than plesant.

Goodness, she was bored.

And it wasn't for lack of trying! She had nearly daydreamed herself to death, ran around the islands for an hour, played with dolls until she felt weird about doing that, and finally gave up, just laying down and doing nothing. Stress had to say, it wasn't really a better option than the others.

"Alright, Stress." She said out loud to herself. "You have nothing to do, you're in a small area, and you're a dragon. What do you do? Nothing? You're gonna do something amazing, love! I just have to find something amazing to do! I'll let you take the credit."

She giggled a bit to herself, but that tapered off with a frown.

Memories. That had been what Ex had said, right? He thought she was unlocking memories.

Well, if she could figure out what memories he was talking about...

They couldn't be Stress memories. Ex and Hels didn't know she was Stress.

The Ender Dragon, on the other hand.

Stress screwed her eyes shut and hummed.

Right.

Memories.

Ender Dragon memories.

Memorieeeeeees.

Memememories.

Mlemmories.

Mammaries-no, not those.

Stress groaned, digging into the crumbly endstone with her claws- how was she supposed to remember stuff she didn't remember?!

Which yes, she realized was a paradox, but she so did not care!

The dragon huffed, and started to raise to her feet. Maybe she would have better luck with memories with some background noise-

_ The two fragile beings raced under her and around her precious island, splashing water everywhere. The taller was a familiar and ferocious face, and she felt a streak of fear run through her chest. _

_ The lesser void kind had vanished, and she let out a roar, twisting herself away to one of her crystals when the shorter of the two players was caught in her magic and vanished in a puff of smoke- _

_ One of the familiar ones was back, and she let out a displeased rumble as he and his friend got closer, taking to the dark and empty skies with a beat of her wings, ready for the first fight in her new world- _

_ The woman stood alone, and plunged her sword into her heart with a war cry to rival the cry of pain she released- _

_ A solo fighter, dressed in two layers of armor and with a bright grin, dashing around the island with bright laughter no matter how many times she tore through him with her claws and sent him vanishing into smoke- _

_ Two fighters, one brave and one confident. One bow was steady as it followed her path of flight around the island, the player floating through the air as the other man raised hasty swipes to the void kind around her home- _

_ Three. More than most groups that passed through, and she raised herself from her pillar to glare at the familiar one, throwing her wings out to take in the energy of reincarnation- _

_ The player was pesky and annoying, but the first fight of her world was always an exciting one, and she allowed him passage over the unforgiving and cruel void before she started her attacks against him- _

Stress cried out in pain as she fell back down into the crops, the plants withering and dying under her- and it was no small horror that Stress realized her jaws were leaking a purple goop that hissed and ate away at the wheat.

The purple reduced the plants to ash under her, and Stress fell over to the side as she remembered-  remembered -what the dragon's breath had done to human skin.   


God, and Zedaph had laughed it off like it was nothing.

She recognized her friends. Through the dark and foggy thoughts running through her head like a Halloween night jog, she recognized her friend's faces, even if the memories didn't give an indication as to who they were.

Stress was a tiny bit torn. On the one hand, she felt so physically ill from the previous memories of the ender dragon that she was still considering throwing up her chicken breakfast.

But on the other hand-er, claw...

Oh, how she missed seeing her friend's faces. From fellow Kingdomcrafters to brave Zed and False, to the oddly familiar helmet that belonged to Xisuma.

She was so homesick for her fellow Hermits she was willing to be physically sick just to see their faces when they killed her.

The ender dragon.

Past her?

Oh, that raised a whole new plethora of questions Stress didn't want to think about.

And luckily for her, she didn't have to think about it, not when Evil X came marching over the bridge to the garden.

"Monster." He called, and Stress could only guess he was raising his brow as he looked around the ashy remains of wheat. "Well, you've been busy."

She grumbled in displeasure.

"Killing our food insted of the practice toys." Ex said, crouching next to Stress. "Well, Hels won't be pleased. Good thing you're spending the day with him."

And while Stress usually would have made a snarky comment under her breath about how there was no real day- there she was.

Standing in front of the portal that led back to the Overworld. Hels had flown them both and didn't look too happy about it, but he still gestured for her to climb into the portal.

"It won't hurt you, Monster."

He thought it was fear holding her back.

Oh, how beautifully, gorgeously wrong he was.

She leapt into the swirling bits of galaxy with a cry of delight, Hels cutting off mid sentence behind her.

It was the same dizzying experience as always, blue and teal and green stars blinking furiously around her, tossing her through the void and spitting her up on a familiar beach.

** Welcome back to Season 7 Spawn! Have a boat! -Joe Hills **

Stress let out a pained noise, staring at the sign and chest.

Hels wasn't at Spawn yet- Stress allowed herself a brief moment of relaxation in the sandy shores, flexing her claws in the midday sun and taking a deep breath of salty air. And then she was jumping through the spawn Nether portal, the distortion around her vision becoming almost painful.

She saw dark armor pop into existence, and she popped on the other side of the portal.

She had to be quick, she had to find another Hermit before Hels came after her through that portal.

It didn’t matter if she didn’t recognize a single bit of the landscape around her, she had to run.

Claws digging into netherrack, Stress bounded into action, sprinting down the small hallway as fast as she could with her tiny legs. It was hot, painfully so, but Stress refused to let a little bit of heat stop her, taking a corner at a million miles per hour.

" _** MONSTER ** _ ."

She doubled her pace.

Crackling fire, sobbing ghasts, distant lava- it all rushed past her in a blur as she took nether tunnel after tunnel.

There were portals she passed, but everytime she paused to escape through into the Overworld, she would find Hels right on her tail. The clone looked downright furious, red eyes blazing with unspent fury, and the sword held tight in his hand glinted with the dull light of the Nether.

She came into an open spot- and oh, she recognized this one.

Stress ran past the shopping district portal and jumped the edge of the retherrack railing, falling a good twenty blocks or so before she crashed into something stiff, claws wrapping around the bright blue vines.

The dragon tilted her head up, squeaking when she saw Hels throw himself over the rail as well, falling the full distance to the roof of whatever beautiful building she was on. The Hermits worked fast. The Nether hadn't expanded that long ago.

Shuffling feet, metal against wood below her. Further down, hissing magma, and the distant sound of a screaming ghast.

"Monster." Hels hissed, starting to climb up the vines to her. He looked straight out of a horror movie, with the vibrant red eyes and sharp sneer, ash and soot clinging to his bony face. “You little brat. When I get my hands on you-“

Stress threw herself off the vine, just barely missing the ghast fireball that crashed into the vines.

Crashed right into Hels.

Stress screamed a war cry as the evil Hermit fell down, down, down, blasted off the vines and into the sizzling lava below, plunging beneath the surface with no more than a splat. 

The lava curled and splashed.

The same lava she was headed for, even if she had leapt for safety.

Her war cry turned fearful and pained, falling just as fast as the horrible knight before something in her back  tugged -

_ Her wings spread, thin membrane catching on the cold wind of her home. _

_ Bones flexed and flared, powerful muscles all working together to send her up in the air. _

_ She roared, the impossibly loud noise carrying on the skies, her skies, her domain that she and she alone ruled- _

Stress crashed into the mini-hub, her spread wings carrying her a bit too far and smacking her against glass.

She crumpled into a heap, mind still racing with shared memories. The Hermit distantly recognized the memory of her- her in this body, with her own mind- flying, but it paled in comparison to the pure exhilaration she felt in the wisps of memory.

Stress groaned and raised her head, folding her wings back against her body and struggling to shaky feet.

There was a portal in front of her, and Stress gladly dragged herself through the vibrant purple haze, stumbling out into the blissfully cool air of the Overworld.

She took a shuddering breath, a building headache she hadn't realized was there soothed by the clean breeze. The sun was still around midday, and she could tell because there was a bit of a roof over her, and the two glass walls to either side didn’t show the sun.

There was a bridge, and Stress stumbled over it.

She barely saw the gray concrete beneath her claws, just dragging herself further and further into the base. Shadows blessed her, and the quietest whine of pleasure came from her throat, tail lashing happily behind her.

The adrenaline of Stress’s adventure was starting to wear off, enough so that the voices were starting to blend together.

Huh.

Something about that.

Didn't feel right.

Stress swayed on her feet for a solid thirty seconds before it clicked, and she staggered on clumsy and tired legs to where she could hear two voices talking over each other in a friendly enough tone.

"Helsknight, X. Hels. Knight. He's been here the entire time, and we had no clue!"

"He could've returned recently, my friend."

"He probably has her! Messed with her comms, is keeping her prisoner."

"It's unlikely, False. I want an easy answer as well, but... Evil Xisuma could never sneak onto the world without me knowing, and I doubt Helsknight could either."

There was a thud that Stress could easily tell was a punch on wood,the small dragon creeping closer.

"I searched every world border, as many caves as I could find. Villages, outposts, anything. And he had her this entire time. I’m going to... I hope Wels doesn't mind that I'm planning on using his lookalike as a 'Welcome back Stress piñata.’”

Stress tiptoed around the corner, stopping at the enormous doorway. There was a wall covered in signs in the large room, another in maps, with the other two walls being decorated with storage and other basics like crafting, anvils and furnaces.

There was a solid quartz table in the center of the room, with one figure sitting in a chair and the other pacing the long edge.

Stress let out a soft trill, words beyond her as she beheld False and Xisuma.

The admin was in charcoal black armor, obviously colored from his original suit. Two (fake?) bone tusks protruded from either side of his ventilation, and Stress found her eyes drawn to the golden accents in the outfit before she dragged her gaze away.

False's hair was shorter, no longer cascading down her back and over her shoulders. Instead, it was cut to the collarbone and held In messy pigtails that bobbed with each step. Her goggles were hanging around her neck instead of resting on her forehead, and of course Stress noticed the new bags under her sky blue eyes, she had lost count of how many times she had forced False to sleep.

Her gaze floated back to Xisuma, freezing when she realized she could see his purple eyes through his visor.

He was staring right back at her.

"Oh goodness me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! sorry for the long wait for this chapter, I wanted to make it slightly longer than usual, and sorta pushed myself to double the length to around 3000 words  
> it would be really helpful if you could let me know if you would prefer shorter chapters/time between updates, or longer chapters/longer time!  
> thanks for reading, and see you soon!

**Author's Note:**

> uh. hi!  
> this is my first published hermitcraft au, I’ve got like,,, 20? ish? that I’m co-writing with my friend but I wanted to try to write and finish an actual fic on my own this summer.  
> here’s hoping you enjoyed ;P  
> Questions? Reactions? Tortured souls from the pits of hell that want someone to hear their last wishes? Either leave a comment here or hop on over to my tumblr, @fluffy-papaya, where I post art!


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